A circuit board or substrate incorporated in an electric device bears a number of electronic components. Although most of the components are connected with one another only through circuits integrally formed on the board, some are connected with another components through bracket-like jump wires with opposite ends securely inserted in holes defined in the board.
FIG. 12 shows a conventional wiring machine generally indicated by reference numeral 1 for mounting the jump wire or wire component in the form of bracket or staple on the circuit board. The wiring machine 1 includes a wire supply 2 having a reel around which the wire is wound, a wire feeder 3 for feeding the wire sequentially, an insert machine 4 for cutting the incremental portion of the wire, bending the cut wire into a bracket-like wire component and then inserting opposite ends of the bracket-like wire component into the corresponding holes of the board. The machine 1 also includes a board holder 5 for transporting and then holding the circuit board in place and a controller 6 for controlling the whole operation of the machine 1.
FIGS. 13A and 13B show several parts incorporated in the wiring machine 1 and an electric connection of the parts. In particular, in FIG. 13A, the wire supply 3 is illustrated on the right side and the wire insert machine 4 is depicted on the left side, so that the circuit board 11 is retained under the wire insert machine 4. The wire supply 3 has a main frame 8 or body with a mechanism for feeding the wire. For this purpose, the mechanism has a pair of rotatable feed rollers 13 for holding the wire and feeding a certain length of the wire intermittently in the direction of arrow E from the reel. A wire guide 9 is also provided for the wire supply 3 for directing the fed wire toward the wire insert machine 4. To this end, the guide 9 has a tube or nozzle 16. The wire guide 9 is supported so that it swings about a vertical support axis 15 in a horizontal plane relative to the main frame 8 in the directions indicated by arrows C and D to change a direction in which the wire is extended. A motor 17 is drivingly connected with the rollers 13 so that the rollers 13 rotate to feed the wire 12. Also, an actuator 18 with an air-cylinder, for example, is drivingly connected at the support axis 15 so as to swing wire guide 9 and its guide nozzle 16. An amount of rotation of the motor 17 and a displacement of the actuator for the intermittent feeding of the wire are determined and controlled by the controller 6 (FIG. 12). For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 13B, the controller 6 includes central processing unit (CPU), sequential control, NC control. The sequential control is electrically connected with magnetic valves for driving the actuators or air-cylinders 18 and 27-29, described below. Also, the NC control is electrically connected with drivers for driving elements, for example, motors 17 and 26.
The wire insert machine 4 has a pair of cutters 21 and 22 for receiving the distal end portion of the wire 12 fed from the wire supply 3 and cutting the wire into a certain length and a bender for bending the cut wire into a predetermined shape in the form of bracket, for example, so that its opposite ends can be inserted in the corresponding holes of the circuit board. For this purpose, the pair of cutters 21 and 22 have movable blade 21a and 22a and fixed blades 21b and 22b, respectively. The movable blades 21a and 22a are supported for elevation so that they cooperates with the fixed blades 21b and 22b to cut a distal end potion of the wire, forming a piece of wire having a predetermined length. The bender 23 has a bending dye 24 and a pair of insert guides 25 positioned on outside, opposite sides of the bending dye 24. The blades 21a and 22, bending dye 24, and guides 25 are drivingly connected with actuators 27, 28, and 29, respectively. The insert guides 25 are mounted for elevation so that they moves downward to cooperate with the inward bending dyne 24 to bend the opposite ends of the cut wire in the form of bracket. After bending, the bending dye 24 is moved away by a linkage mechanism not shown.
The wire insert machine 4 is supported for rotation about a vertical axis parallel to the Z-axis and drivingly connected with a motor 26. This allows the insert machine 4 to rotate so that the opposite ends of the cut wire 12 to be positioned at the corresponding holes 19 in the circuit board 11. After positioning, the wire 12 is moved down with the guides 25 so that the opposite ends of the wire are inserted in the holes 19.
The actuators and motors may be substituted with another driving means. For example, the wire feeder may be made of a reciprocating linkage driven by a suitable drive so that the linkage catches the wire as it moves away from the reel and releases as it moves toward the reel, thereby advancing the wire intermittently.
Referring to FIGS. 14 to 26, operations of the wiring machine 1 so constructed will be described in detail. FIGS. 14 to 17 illustrate the operations performed by the machine, in which the wire insert machine 4 is not rotated for positioning of the wire at the insertion of the wire. As shown in FIG. 14, a certain length of the wire is forwarded through the guide nozzle 16 by a predetermined rotation of the rollers 13. At this moment, the guide nozzle 16 is rotated horizontally about the support axis 15 so that the wire 12 and the guide nozzle 16 do not interfere with the insert machine 4. Therefore, a portion of the wire 12 held between the guide nozzle 16 and the feed rollers 13 is curved away from a feed line 31 indicated by a short and long dotted line. The feed line 31 is a line extending at the center of and perpendicular to a line connecting the centers of the rollers 13. This causes that the wire 12 is forwarded along the feed line 31 if no biasing or transverse force is applied to the wire. However, as described above, since the rotation of the guide nozzle 16 moves the wire away from the feed line 31, the wire 12 is forwarded without any interference with the insert machine 4. FIG. 14 also shows the operation of the insertion of wire. In this operation, the wire component 12x in the form of bracket, for example, shown on the left side of the drawing, is mounted on the circuit board 11 with its opposite end inserted into the corresponding holes 19 formed in the board.
As described above, the wire mounting machine carries the wire feed operation and the wire insert operations simultaneously.
FIG. 15 shows an operation in which a distal end of the wire is transferred to the insert machine. That is, a distal end portion of the wire fed out near the insert machine in the previous wire feed operation is rotated horizontally about the support axis 15 in the direction D from a setback position (see FIG. 14) to a cut and bent position (see FIG. 15). In the cut and bent position, the wire stays on the feed line 31 in a straight manner. Since at this moment the previous wire component 12x has already been mounted on the circuit, the distal end of the wire 12 can be received without any trouble. After being received by the insert machine 4, the distal end of the wire is cut by the two pairs of blades 21 and 22 to form a piece of wire having a certain length. This completes the transfer of the wire 12 to the insert machine 4.
In the setback position in FIG. 17, for preparing the subsequent feeding of the wire, the guide nozzle 16 is rotated about the support shaft 15 in the direction indicated by arrow C. This prevents the guide nozzle 16 and the wire to be fed out in, the subsequent wire feeding from making any interference with the insert machine 4. In this condition, the piece of wire in the insert machine 4 is bent into the predetermined shape, e.g., bracket form. When bending, the bending dye 24 is protruded by a linkage not shown and, simultaneously with this, the insert guides 25 are moved down. This results in that the piece of cut wire is formed by the cooperation of the bending dye 24 and the insert guides 25 into the wire component 12x of the predetermined bracket shape, for example. Then, the process goes back to the operation shown in FIG. 14. As described above, the wire 12 is subject to the feeding, cutting, bending operations and inserting operations subsequently, so that the wire components are inserted in the holes 19 of the circuit board 11.
FIG. 18 shows operations carried out in the insert machine. As shown in the drawing, operations indicated within a right block are those carried out by the wire feeder 3 and operations indicated within a left block are those carried out by the wire insert machine 4. Also, operations within an overlap region of the blocks are those carried out by the cooperation of the wire feeder 3 and the wire insert machine 4. For example, the wire feed operation by the wire feeder 3 and the wire insert operation by the wire insert machine 4 are carried out simultaneously when no rotation of the wire insert machine 4 is needed for the positioning of the wire component.
Referring to FIGS. 19 to 26, discussions will be made to another insert operation accompanied by the rotational positioning by the wire insert machine 4. In this operation, as shown in FIG. 19 providing a process of wire feeding, the paired rollers 13 rotate to feed out a predetermined length of the wire 12. At this moment, the cutters 21 and 22 take a home position on the reference line 31. The guide nozzle 16, on the other hand, takes a setback position so that it makes no interference with the insert machine 4. This in turn allows the wire 12 to be advanced without any interference with the insert machine 4. As can be seen from the drawing, a portion of the wire being advanced between the guide nozzle and the rollers 13 is curved to a certain extent away from the reference line 31.
Referring to FIG. 20, in the subsequent transmission of the wire, the guide nozzle 16 is rotated about the support shaft 15 in the direction D so that the distal end of the wire fed out in the previous feeding is transferred to the wire insert machine 14. This results in that the distal end portion of the wire is positioned on the straight reference line 31. Then, in the subsequent cutting shown in FIG. 21, the distal end portion of the wire 12 received by the wire insert machine 4 is cut by the cutters 21 and 22 in the wire insert machine 4, forming a wire component of a predetermined length. This completes the transmission of wire.
Referring to FIG. 22 showing a setback operation of the guide nozzle, the guide nozzle 16 is rotated about the support shaft 15 in the direction C to a setback position in order to prevent the possible interference of the insert machine 4 not only with the guide nozzle 16 but also with the distal end portion of the wire to be fed out in the subsequent feeding of the wire. At this moment, the wire 12 is curved away from the reference line 13. On the other hand, the bending dye 24 is protruded by the linkage not shown and also the insert guides 25 are moved down, so that the distal end portion of the wire is bent to form the wire component 12x. After the completion of bending, the bending dye 24 is moved backward by the linkage. Also, in the subsequent positioning, as shown in FIG. 23, the insert machine 4 rotates about a rotational axis P so that the wire component 12x is positioned above the predetermined insert position. Then, as shown in FIG. 24, the opposite ends of the wire component 12x held by the insert guides 25 are inserted in the holes 19 of the circuit board 11 (see FIG. 13). At this moment, the insert machine 4 opposes to the guide nozzle 16, so that a feeding of the wire causes an interference between the insert machine 4 and the distal end portion of the wire 12. This means that it is not permitted to feed the wire in this condition.
As shown in FIG. 25, after the completion of the insertion of the wire component, the insert machine 4 is returned to its original position, allowing the insert machine 4 to receive the subsequent distal end portion of the wire 12. This also allows the wire feeder 3 to feed the wire without any interference between the wire 12 and the insert machine 4, as shown in FIG. 19. By the completion of the processes described above, the wire 12 is repeatedly fed out, cut and bent to form wire components. Each of the wire components mounted on the circuit board 11 with its opposite ends inserted in the corresponding holes 19 of the circuit board 11. FIG. 26 shows the insert operation of the wire components in which the insert machine 4 rotates for the positioning of the wire components. In this drawing, the operations carried out by the feeder 3 and the insert machine 4 are shown in the respective blocks surrounded by the dotted lines. Also, operations within an overlap region of the blocks are those carried out by the cooperation of the wire feeder 3 and the wire insert machine 4.
The above-described conventional insert operation and machine have several drawbacks. As described with reference to FIG. 24, the guide nozzle 16 opposes the insert machine 4 while the insert machine 4 is performing the positioning and inserting of the wire component 12x. This prohibits the subsequent feeding of the wire, which would otherwise cause the interference between the insert machine and the wire. Therefore, the wire feeder 3 is required to wait for a certain period indicated at xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d in FIG. 26 until the insert machine 4 returns its home position. Also, the subsequent wire feeding is initiated only after the insert machine 4 is returned to its home position, which in turn requires the insert machine 4 to wait for a certain period indicated at xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d in FIG. 26 until after the completion of the wire feeding. Namely, a cycle time of the operation in which the insert machine 4 is required to rotate for the positioning of the wire component 12x is greater than that of the operation in which no rotation is required for the insert machine 4. This reduces an efficiency of mounting of wire components of the machine. For example, the operation with rotation requires 0.18 seconds for each component while another operation without rotation requires 0.15 seconds. This means that the productivity of the operation with rotation is lower than that without rotation by about 20%.
Therefore, a purpose of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus capable of carrying out the positioning and inserting of the wire component and the feeding of the component simultaneously irrespective of the necessity of the rotation of the insert machine, thereby improving the productivity of the insert apparatus.
Accordingly, an apparatus for mounting a wire component on a substrate has a feed device for feeding a wire a predetermined length intermittently, and an insert device for cutting the wire fed out by the feed device, bending the cut wire to form a wire component, rotating and positioning the wire component, and then inserting the wire component in a hole defined in the substrate. In particular, irrespective of a position of the insert device, the feed device feeds out the were in a direction where no interference would occur between the feed device and the insert device.